Existing systems permit users to search listings that are associated with specific geographic locations. For example, a user may search for “pizza” while viewing a map and in response the service may provide search results. The search results may include listings that are proximate to the map and fall within the category of pizza restaurants (or otherwise match the request such as having the term “pizza” in their company name). The service may also return other types of search results, such as advertisements from companies that are paid to have their advertisements shown when a user queries one or more terms regardless of the map being viewed.
The results of the search may be ranked based on the likelihood that a particular result will be of interest to the user that submitted the query. Other factors may be used as well, such as the reliability and safety of the search result, and whether the result is associated with a geographic location of interest to the user.
The business listing search results, or data identifying a business, its contact information, web site address, and other associated content, may be displayed on a map such that a user may easily identify which businesses are located within a particular area.
Some of the listings may be spam, e.g., the user that submitted the listing may not have a legitimate business at the location but is instead using a fake listing to present their actual business phone number to more potential customers. Such users often have a sophisticated understanding of how results are ranked by search engines. Such users may monitor how high their listing is ranked in search results and make major or minor modifications to increase their ranking. For example, such a user may submit many listings for the same business and continuously change the listings so the user can determine, through analysis or trial and error, the most effective way of increasing its ranking in a search engine.
A single listing may be associated with multiple titles. For example, a user may have entered a title for the business associated with the listing and added a second title when the name of the business changed. In addition to user input, titles from sources other than the users voluntarily submitting information about a business may also be used. For example, the titles for a business listing may also be obtained or generated from phone books, websites, public records and other sources. In that regard, users may submit spam titles, e.g., titles that are submitted for the primary purpose of increasing the likelihood that one or more titles will match the query and increase the ranking of the listing in search results.